Putin orders ‘symmetric’ measures after US missile test

MOSCOW: President Vladimir Putin has ordered the Russian military to find a quid pro quo response after the test of a new US missile banned under a now-defunct arms treaty.

In Sunday’s test, a modified ground-launched version of a Navy Tomahawk cruise missile accurately struck its target more than 500 kilometers away. The test came after the US and Russia withdrew from the 1987 Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty.

The US has explained its withdrawal from the treaty by Russian violations, a claim Moscow has denied. Speaking Friday, Putin charged that the US wanted to “untie its hands to deploy the previously banned missiles in different parts of the world.”

He ordered the Defense Ministry and other agencies to “take the necessary measures to prepare a symmetrical answer.”